Kids in Glass Houses s/b The Nightmares at the O2 Ritz, Manchester.

It’s been a long wait for this night. Kids In Glass Houses have returned to our lives again after almost 10 years. Back in 2014 the band broke up with the thought of never getting back together and making music again, the alternative music scene was heartbroken. But last year an amazing thing happened with the announcement of the Slam Dunk 2023 line up, and Kids In Glass Houses were on the bill. With their first performance in 9 years taking place on the last May bank holiday this year, the announcement was made about a 15 year anniversary tour of their album Smart Casual. Months later and the night has landed in Manchester at O2 Ritz, an upgrade from the original location of Manchester Academy 2, and a sold out show.

With support from Newport’s, The Nightmares, who take to the stage first to an already packed out room. The Nightmares at first glance look like your typical gothic band, the style of wearing all black with dark makeup tells you that instantly and the first thing that came to mind was the band Creeper, which is ironic considering The Nightmares will also be supporting Creeper on their next UK tour. The lights are down low with a huge throw of red to add to the gothic themes of the band. The band’s brand of 80s-tinged synth-rock goes perfectly as a way to start the night off. With their album Seance being released recently this year, they’re ready to show the crowd who they are!

The performance was simple and beautifully done, with many in the crowd cheering them on, they’re a band that’s up and coming and with the publicity they’re getting recently they’re going to bring a lot of people to them. They know how to kick start a show, with their set mostly focusing around their latest album. The new album being inspired by them conducting seance’s at home, hence the title. They had such a unique take on noir-pop, retro goth, and punk creating something that was truly beautiful to listen to and witness being performed live.

During their performance you can see the heavy influences from Creeper to The Cure and even to The Distillers, the entire performance was just fantastic to say the least.

Setlist:

It Follows
Pink and Grey
Cruelly Yours
Heartless
From Above
Cursed

Now it’s time for the main event, Kids In Glass Houses finally back together again ready to play their debut album in full front to back. Opener Fisticuffs kicks into full gear with every single word being roared back at the band by the crowd, a lot if not all of the people in this room spent their teenage years worshipping these songs. They threw in the hits like Give Me What I Want and Saturday which are my personal favourites from them. And I did join in by roaring back every single word to them, tracks such as Lovely Bones and Shameless get a much deserved sing along moments.

Frontman Aled Philips, sports a white t-shirt under a blazer and suit pants with a pair of trainers, really adding to the Smart Casual theme. I saw Kids In Glass Houses a few months ago at their reunion show at Slam-Dunk Festival 2023, and seeing them then and now makes me so happy that the scene is coming back together again. The energy that Aled has on this stage is something else, he’s running back and forth to every section of the stage even with the mic stand in hand, dropping it in dramatics and climbing on the drummers platform to see everyone just that much better with his fellow bandmates by his side.

Just watching this band perform again you can see on each of their faces that this is something they have missed on an insane level, with a smile for each and every one of them looking out into the crowd, you see the fans from each section of the room looking like they feel like a kid again. Like the world has healed for them at this moment, there’s something about your favourite bands coming back together again that just makes everything okay again.

As the band goes off stage for what I like to call band peekaboo, to come back on for the encore, we’re welcomed with the final five songs. The night for me felt like it ended kind of early, with the show finishing at 10:15pm, but it’s like they know the ages of all their fans now, we can’t afford to be staying out late on a Monday night.

This is a show I won’t ever forget.

One thing to add that will make everyone happy, the band takes a picture with the crowd only to post later on, on Instagram that a new album will be gracing us all soon. Kids In Glass Houses came back to us and they’re not leaving us again any time soon, and I can’t wait to see what they manage to do.

Setlist: